Mobile communication devices are increasingly important and are in common use in many environments. Accordingly, individuals often keep them on their person throughout large portions of the day. In part, the ubiquity of mobile communication devices arises because such devices are often capable of performing many different functions. For instance, mobile communication devices may support any of a variety of applications, such as a telephone application, a video conferencing application, an e-mail application, an instant messaging application, a blogging application, a digital camera application, a digital video camera application, a web browsing application, a digital music player application, and/or a digital video player application, and so on.
One problem with the ubiquity of these devices in so many different environments is that their use in not appropriate in all settings. As one common example, in a theater the sound from a mobile communication device and the light from its display can be distracting to other theater patrons. Even if the user deactivates certain features such as audio notification of incoming calls and text messages, users may still rely on other features while in the theater. For example, mobile communication devices are sometimes used as a substitute for a watch, and these people may use the device to check the time while in the theater. Even this use of the device can be distracting to other theater patrons because of the light emanating from the display when the user looks at the display to see the time. Many of these same and other similar problems arise not only in theaters, but in other environments and venues such as in a meeting room, automobile and even bedrooms.